At 6pm the temperature at the SSC Hut on CairnGorm was 6.9°c and at the Summit it was 3.3°c. Very heavy squally rain moved in around 7pm, it is still tipping it down though little is showing on the radar.

As of 8pm we have no more updates from the Summit, but the temperature at the SSC Hut is now 4.8°c. A comparable drop at the Summit would have brought the air temperature down to 1.1°c, so it's distinctly possible that it might wet snow on the Summit and even more likely that it is on Ben Macdui. If it is falling as snow it will be pretty full on up there!

Will the lifts be open in the morning? :-)

Start the snow dances - it's about time we had a year with some October turns!

(When was the last one - lift served or otherwise??)

Well what about some September turns? This was today, technically 2015 snow.

The weather was absolutely stunning with early morning mist breaking around 11:00 to give a high of 24oC in the village with no wind at all so Shona and I headed up the windy ridge path, the perspiration dripping off us. We had lunch outside the Ptarmigan restaurant catching up with the gossip with the staff before heading over to Ciste Mhearad.

The Reindeer had got there before us and were not to happy to give up their cooling spot. Eventual they moved over to let us ski down but I think they were a bit disgruntled!

To day was a first, skiing in midge nets. The we blighters were ferocious and their bigger cousins were annoying. 100% DEET was required and it was melting the plastic on my ski poles.

The snow patch is still quite sizeable and you can see there is some nice skiing to be had on the granular surface. Halfway down you have to be car full on the uneven surface but it just adds variety.

If you get the chance this week it is worth the walk up before the weather returns back to the usual driech.

Could you move over a bit please?


Shona sporting the latest midge prevention fashion


shorts and T-shirt, you can get an idea of the patch size from this pic


Watch the uneven surface in the middle



Graeme





Edited 2 times. Last edit at 19.12hrs Mon 7 Sep 15 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: shorts.JPG (410kB)   Uneven.JPG (426kB)   Shona Midge Net.JPG (248kB)   Reindeer shona.JPG (252kB)  

Great stuff Graeme!

Mrs MA and I once did the 600 mile round trip to camp/hike and ski that very snow patch one August - in 2010 if I recall correctly.

Looking at your pics, it was nowhere near that size though - about 60 or 70 metres at best. How long is the patch at the moment?

Could well be tempted!!

Probably no more than 150m tip to tail but fairly rectangular so you can pick your way down different ways. I have a few more pics on face book that give a better idea of the size.

The problem with this year is we have not had more than 2 good days in a row making it difficult to plan trips. Ok if you are 15 minutes away but to have 600 miles round trip... come up if you have other things planned but it is a risk.

Not quite sure how to link to face book but here is an attempt!

[www.facebook.com]

Graeme

Cheers Graeme!

Forecast looking mixed for the weekend to say the least.In terms of our regular pops to the Highlands, I guess we may be regarded as a bit mental...We were once surprised by a snap early November snowfall down to Base Lodge level but could only spare a Saturday morning as we had to be back in North East England by mid pm that day...So we drove up after work on the Friday; camped in the car in the Cas car park; set off ski touring up the Cas at about 06.30 in the dark; skinned all the way to the top of the Ptarmigan in a pea souper/light snow; and had one run down - still in thick fog. Good snow and good fun though!

We pulled away in the car and set off home at 09.30 - by which point the fog had lifted...





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 20.21hrs Tue 8 Sep 15 by Mountainaddict.

0.8ºc and West 47 gusting 71mph at the Summit of CairnGorm at 6pm. Could be some wintry stuff in these showers on the Plateau, certainly autumnal!

Let it snow let it snow let it snow!!

Getting impatient now! Grrrrr!!

Outlook looks like it could be FINALLY cooling down from midweek next week - freezing level down to about 1300m, with snow showers....

Curiosity got the better of me and with the sun glinting on the snow in the morning webcam photos I decided to head up. By the time I arrived the sun was hidden and if it hadn't been for the protection the snow fences gave me on the way up I'd have been blown over several times!

I much appreciated Timothy coming out of the Ptarmigan to check I was ok when I was hunkered down on all fours waiting for a lull to make it over to the Ptarmigan fence.

However Ciste Mhearad was a totally different world, sheltered and looking beautiful with the fresh snow on top of the existing snow from last season. This was my third visit this month and the tunnel which had been mostly complete up to a week ago had only two narrow fragile bridges left .

Despite the fresh snow the skiing was rubbish compared to my previous two visits when the old snow had a beautiful crystalline spring texture. Today the fresh was like glue !

However I didn't need to walk back down the Ptarmigan traverse as the snowfences had caused a big enough drift to ski. The wind had even dropped by then
Some photos here [www.winterhighland.info]


Helen

Summit AWS showing temperature below 0°c at the Summit. snow showers forecast overnight to possibly a bit below Munro Level, so might be something white on the webcams in the morning!

Wrong thread I know. Got fed up looking for average speed camera thread.
Apologies to everybody stuck behind me tonight on A9, some how I got it into my head the speed for cars was 50mph. Took a we bit longer to get up from Bristol than intended. Surprised not many folk trying to overtake.

It's 50mph for HGV's now. It used to be 50mph on duel carriageway sections and 40 on single carriageways for HGV's. It hasn't changed for cars but you still get stuck behind big trucks so end up doing 56mph anyway.

Skinned up from base station today. Overtaken and left for stour by Hilly.
Cas between tow track and boulder field was a lovely reward. Well worth the drive up.
Fingers crossed for 5th December lift assisted turns.